Empower your staff, but verify their work

November 4, 2011

As staffs and companies continue to constrict, it is important that we create an environment that our employees can excel in. Part of this is giving your employees the ability to make critical decisions that will allow for them to complete their roles effectively.

If you do not provide them with the necessary tools, you will likely only create additional work for your most important staff members or possibly for yourself. If your workweek looks anything like mine does these days, then they start early and nearly never end on time.

Looking at the Powersports Business survey numbers, it is obvious that dealers are operating their businesses with less staff than ever, typically with limited full-time staff backed up with a work force of part-time employees. We are all learning to adjust.

It is more important than ever that your team members are able to move fast, make decisions and perform more critical roles for your business with less micro managing for your business to succeed. Unfortunately the downside of empowering can be loss of productivity or reduction in the quality of mission-critical tasks, but this can be avoided by developing checks and balances to verify these items.

Ensure you are using the technology you have wisely. Develop automated reports if possible or manual reports if not. Most importantly, create a system that gives you snapshots of the most important areas of your business and allows you to easily and constantly verify. These things will ensure that individuals’ jobs are being completed, projects shipped and customer service delivered.